News Archive
Mark’s Musings - Day 4 (Friday)
So to Redding, a northern Californian provincial city of about 65,000 people. Couldn’t be more different from LA. Taxi driver told us that it’s the bible belt of the state. I reckon about 25% of the place are practicing Christians, with many of them attending Bethel, the church we want to be a part of over the weekend. You can certainly sense that the church has a significant reputation in the community. Everyone knows where it is, and our friendly taxi driver certainly thinks they’re the best thing since sliced bread: “such lovely people…and that Bill Johnson is a terrific guy.”Bethel church building is impressive, set on a hill, at the edge of the city (I want to call it town), incorporating a school (with sports pitches and floodlights!), a healing centre, and a serious church building. Unfortunately (for us), the Friday meeting was moved to the local convention centre, as its part of a youth conference. So, to the convention centre, Teeming with trillions of youth, all about to enter an evening celebration. This amounted to a louder and bigger version of 9th hour. Great, but I’m really looking forward to getting under the skin of this church tomorrow. Be in touch.
“The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” (Ps24:1) . Flying over the state of California, and seeing out of one plane window a panoply of mountain range, semi-arid desert, patchwork fields of vineyards, small town, then ocean, gives added meaning to the beauty, diversity and majesty of the creation our God has formed and continues to uphold. Thank you Jesus for this wonderful macro vision of your power.